Product: Popchips Sweet Potato Chips – $2.99+
Sweet potato chips have always been my absolute favorite thing. Why? Well, I absolutely love sweet potatoes. Sweet potato fries. Baked sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes have been my favorite type of potato for a long, long, long time. So, when I spotted a bag of Popchips in a sweet potato flavor…I lunged for the shelf to snatch them off and drop them into my shopping basket. After all…a nice, crunchy afternoon snack never goes amiss, right? Right.
Well, today was the day I carried a serving to the office with me for my usual 3 p.m. snack. All day I was anticipating that sweet potato flavor…sort of like what I’d get in Food Should Taste Good’s Sweet Potato chips, I assumed. Because those chips are amazing.
And…these were Popchips. And I love Popchips. I have since they were first introduced to the market and I found them in the store. I tried them, loving their non-greasy nature, their crunchy texture, and how light and guiltless they are. I mean, they are never fried and never baked. They are…popped. Seriously. Popped. Popchips use the finest ingredients, add some heat and pressure, and make it go POP!…creating a light chip that doesn’t get soaked in oil or have the flavor baked out of it. The first time I tried them, I was impressed. They have a different texture from regular chips, but as a popcorn fan…that was fine with me.
Nutritionally speaking, Popchips are a great choice. As stated before, they aren’t fried or baked. They are light and airy. This means you get more chips per serving than you would regular chips. The serving size is still 28 grams, but that gets you around 23 chips. Nice. There are only 4 grams of fat per serving in the sweet potato chips. They are free from trans-fat and saturated fat. They are cholesterol free. They are gluten-free. They are low in sodium (115 mg). And one serving is only 120 calories. So…they do have their good side.
HOWEVER..for the first time since falling in love with Popchips, I fell out of love with one of the flavors. And, oddly enough, it was the flavor that I thought I would rave about the most. Yep. Sweet Potato.
The Sweet Potato Popchips are rather…vile…to be honest. I popped one of the chips into my mouth and immediately didn’t get that sweet/smokey/salty flavor I associate with sweet potato. In fact, nothing about this chip reminded me of sweet potatoes. What I did get was…marshmallow flavor. I don’t want my chips to taste like marshmallow. If I wanted to eat something that tasted like marshmallow, I’d get out the jar of Fluff in my pantry. My chips should not taste like a Rice Krispie Treat gone wrong. EVER! And that’s all I got here. Nothing sweet potato even reminiscent in here. Unless they were going for sweet potato casserole flavor…but that’s one sweet potato dish I have never liked. I don’t like or care for marshmallows on my starch and I certainly don’t want my chips to taste like marshmallow. If I wanted salted Rice Krispie treats, I’d make them. I don’t want that. I want a healthy chip that gives me amazing sweet potato flavor. Not sweet potato casserole. Not Rice Krispies. SWEET POTATO!
Nothing was right with these chips at all. And, I am breaking a cardinal rule when it comes to food items that are purchased for the sake of trying them out. I found these so unappetizing that I am tossing the rest of the bag away and moving onto whatever snack might be next in my gluten-free pantry. I never trash food because of my tight budget, but the very thought of eating any more of these (I choked down today’s serving so I wouldn’t starve between now and dinner time) makes my stomach churn. There is nothing redeeming about these chips.
At all.
So, take my advice, fellow Popchip and snack lovers…avoid these at all costs. Your wallet, your stomach, and your taste buds will thank you. These definitely have to rank as some of the worst chips I have ever eaten.
The Celiathlete 